The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 3 eBook

(692) The Duke of Newcastle, in a letter to Mr. Pitt
of the 19th of October, says, “The many great
losses, both public and private, which we have had
this summer, have very greatly affected the Duchess;
and the last of all, of her old friend and companion
of above forty-five years, poor Mrs. Spence, has added
much to the melancholy situation in which she was before.”
Chatham Correspondence, vol, ii. p. 295.-E.

(693) Edward, fifth son of the sixth Earl of Winchelsea.
Mrs. Hatton was his maternal aunt, sister of the
last Viscount Hatton.-C.

I am much disappointed, I own, dear Sir, at not seeing
you: more so, as I fear it will be long before
I shall, for I think of going to paris early in February.
I ought indeed to go directly, as the winter does
not agree with me here. Without being positively
ill, I am positively not well: about this time
of year, I have little fevers every night, and pains
in my breast and stomach, which bid me repair to a
more flannel climate. These little complaints
are already begun, and as soon as affairs will permit
me, I mean to transport them southward.

I am sorry it is out of my power to make the addition
you wish to Mr. Tuer’s article: many of
the following sheets are printed off, and there is
no inserting any thing now, without shoving the whole
text forward, which you see is impossible. You
promised to bring me a portrait of him: as I
shall have four or five new plates, I can get his
head into one of them: will you send it as soon
as you can possibly to my house in Arlington-street;
I will take great care of it-, and return it to you
safe.

I don’t know whether this letter will not reach
you, my dear lord, before one that I sent to you last
week by a private hand, along with one from your brother.
I write this by my Lord Chamberlain’s order—­you
may interpret it as you please, either as by some
new connexion of the Bedford squadron with the opposition,
or as a commission to you, my lord ambassador.
As yet, I believe you had better take it upon the
latter foundation, though the Duke of Bedford has
crossed the country from Bath to Woburn, without coming
to town. Be that as it may, here is the negotiation
intrusted to you. You are desired by my Lord
Gower to apply to the gentilhomme de la chambre for
leave for Doberval(694) the dancer, who was here last
year, to return and dance at our Opera forthwith.
If the court of France -will comply with this request,
we will send them a discharge in full, for the Canada
bills and the ransom of their prisoners, and we will
permit Monsieur D’Estain to command in the West
Indies, whether we will or not. The city of
London must not know a word of this treaty, for they